I am a "youthful" 68 and want to switch careers and become a nurse. Am I too old?

The average employee leaves before five years anyway. Nurses are even more nomadic in their careers, often leaving to pick up sign on bonuses on a whim.

I don’t know why you don’t think a fit 68 year man can’t do the work of a 5 foot tall, semi obese Indian or Filipina woman.

Not all nurses are ER nurses. Some give out meds at retirement homes. If you don’t think a 68 year man can work as a nurse, you don’t understand the 100s of different careers option a nurse can follow.

A 68 year old nurse can work for plenty of years, providing a valuable service. And then switch to nurse education. Not everyone wants to retire. Some people like working.

Yes, there are prejudiced people out there. Some don’t want blacks being the president, some don’t want a female NFL head coach, some don’t want older folks to work. Many Americans deal with prejudice on a daily basis for their entire lives.

If a 60 year old can get through Army boot camp and graduate in top ten percent of his class, if an 80 year man is commander in chief of the entire military, why can’t a 70 year old guy set up medical equipment, administer medicines, and update charts?

I get allergy shots about once a month. They are administered by a nurse who is in her 70s. The doctor does the diagnosing is in charge of protocols and is always present in one if the rooms but the nurse gives out the shots, takes blood pressure and administers the breathing tests we do.

This is pretty similar to when I go to my internist for my yearly check up. The nurse puts the leads on me and does the ekgs, takes my blood pressure and draws blood.

Not very strenuous work and again the nurse is in her 70s.

Literally half of the female nurses in the US are obese. There was a study conducted to confirm what is obvious when you work at a hospital. You can easily out perform them once you pick up your skills.

You will be mistaken for a doctor often. Then, you will be mistaken for having more experience than you do. Neither a bad thing.

You will be able to make better connections with older patients and many patients will prefer you over a younger nurse with exposed tattoos, no common sense etc.

Why not? If you want to become a nurse just go for it and achieve your goal! If you have doubts about learning 2 years more you can look for other jobs in the medical field. Recently, I found out that exists a job named phlebotomist. I was very surprised to find out that exists a job named so. For me, it looks very interesting. If you are also interested to find some more details about it, you can check this site https://phlebotomynearyou.com/. This job requires a lower qualification and a smaller period of learning for getting it. I hope that I helped you. P.S. Do not forget to follow your dreams!

go for it wrote:

adsfdasfasfsafadfa wrote:

You aren't middle aged. You are old. Nobody is suggesting that any 68 year old should do a couple years of training for some career that will not start until after they start collecting SS. I sort of doubt you could even get hired.

Getting hired would be my concern. Different field, but we had an open position pre-Covid, and I didn’t even consider interviewing people in their 50’s (and I’m 56). It’s terrible, but who wants to train someone who will likely retire soon? Or when questions about their stamina are sure to arise.

Just a potential obstacle to consider.

What a shame that your staff will miss out on the wisdom and experience most older nurses have.

Go for it. I knew a guy your age who never graduated from high school that did so, went to law school and became a lawyer.